


nobody said it was easy

by Homeistheimpala



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, it's short and doesn't go too into detail tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-06
Updated: 2014-04-06
Packaged: 2018-01-18 09:57:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1424299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Homeistheimpala/pseuds/Homeistheimpala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Isaac tries to help out a little were-coyote.</p>
            </blockquote>





	nobody said it was easy

**Author's Note:**

> First things first, I have no idea what I wrote. I've never written an Isaac centric fic nor have I ever written Stiles/Isaac. I don't even ship Stiles/Isaac. But it felt right for this story.  
> Secondly, the Stiles/Isaac in this is mainly subtext. Mostly because I'm not confident enough to write it proper and I wouldn't want to do the ship injustice. Although, I did write this entire thing with them in mind.   
> Thirdly, this is completely unbeta'd and it was written after a full night of not sleeping so it might very well suck.

They're at the store when Stiles sees it. Sees that for all his hostile exterior, Isaac Lahey is actually a _huge softie_.

Stiles is debating the pros of soy milk over low fat milk but he still thinks that neither really tastes like _milk_ to him when Isaac interrupts.

'Can I have $10?' He asks, not giving a reason and wearing an expression as though he’s fully expecting Stiles to comply.

'What for? Alcohol?' Stiles says, narrowing his eyes at him.

'No. Are you giving me $10 or not?' Isaac asks impatiently. Stiles is already pulling out his wallet. Isaac takes the money offered and walks away, leaving Stiles to put back both the soy and low fat milk and just going with full fat milk because it's not like werewolves don't have ridiculously fast metabolism.

He follows Isaac to the stuffed animals section and tries not to die of cute when he sees Isaac holding a stuffed wolf.

'Need a companion for the night?' Stiles asks, wiggling his eyebrows. Isaac shots him a look of such tremendous boredom, it's like 5 bored teenagers mixed together.

'Lets go.' Isaac says, making his way to the checkout counter. Stiles follows him lazily, going over the grocery list in his mind and seeing if he forgot anything. He hadn't.

By the time he reaches the queue, Isaac is already paying for the plushie and walking out.

'Yo, where are you going?' Stiles calls out. Isaac gestures him to stay out. Whatever.

Inching closer to the front, Stiles can't help looking at the doors through which Isaac had gone.

The girl was ringing up his stuff at an excruciatingly slow place and he wished Isaac would come back and glare at her until she worked faster.

When he walks out, however, the sight he sees is worth every eye roll and sigh he had gotten from the teenage girl.

Sitting on the pavement is a little girl in a floral dress. Isaac is sitting beside her and they are whispering things Stiles' human ears can't catch. In her hand is- oh **_god_**. Stiles wants to dive off a cliff because this is literally too cute. The entire concept just makes him grin like a fucking idiot. She's stroking the little wolf, a smile playing on her features.

Isaac gets up a moment later and takes the bags from Stiles.

'Um. You know you can't just give toys. It's kinda creepy.' Stiles says, pointing at the girl, who is no longer looking at them, too immersed in her new toy.

'Her mother refused to buy it for her.' Isaac stated simply.

'Maybe her mom had a reason?'

'Being jealous of her own daughter is a pretty shitty reason.'

Stiles doesn't know what to say to that so he doesn't say anything at all.

*

The thing about being in a pack is that lines of boundary get blurred. The concept of personal space completely vanishes. So when Erica attaches her nose to the crook of Isaac's neck and takes a long whiff, Stiles doesn't really think much of it.

'You smell weird.'

'Promoters were spraying random shit at me.' Isaac shrugs. Erica frowns but accepts his explanation.

*

'Derek?'

Derek looks up from his book to see Isaac standing by the door. Something had seemed off about him recently but whenever Derek tried to bring it up, Isaac brushes him off.

'How many kinds of shape shifters are there?' Isaac asks quickly. Derek raises his eyebrow.

'Have you found another shapeshifter?' Derek asks. Isaac doesn't respond and Derek doesn't push it.

Instead, he tells Isaac about his distant cousin who turned out to be a were-cat and how he'd get scared and shift and hide under tables.

*

'Hey, what're you doing here?' Isaac looks up to see Allison staring down at him, smiling. He's in the park near the middle school, sitting against a tree.

'Um-' Isaac doesn't get time to think up of an elaborate lie before a girl comes barrelling to him

'Isaac, look!' She says, holding out flowers. Isaac smiles at her, accepting the flowers.

'Who's this?' The girl asks, staring at Allison with wide eyes.

'This is my friend, Allison.'

'Hi, Allison!' The girl says enthusiastically, pushing her hand forward to shake Allison's. 'I'm Malia!'

'Hey, Malia.' Allison smiles at the girl.

'You're pretty.' Malia observes with childlike simplicity.

'Thank you.' Allison laughs. 'You're beautiful.'

Malia blushes and then pets the grass.

'Sit with us. Isaac's reading to me!'

Allison doesn't know what to say but Isaac's expression is guarded. However, Allison sits. She's going to have to trust the beta as he smiles softly and launches into a story.

*

'A were-coyote? You've got to be kidding me.' Stiles is typing furiously into his laptop. Allison is sitting beside him and Isaac is lying on his bed.

'I'm not.' Isaac throws a pen up and catches it.

'Malia Tate, the girl found miraculously three months ago, is a were-coyote who has spent the past 2 years in the woods as a fucking coyote and now she's back and she has an abusive mother?' Stiles asks. Just to clarify.

'Not abusive abusive. Not my kind of abusive.' Isaac sighs. Stiles winces. He doesn't like thinking of Isaac being abused. It makes him want to scream or cry or both.

'Its like, emotional abuse. Psychological. Amanda Tate’s life got ruined after her shape shifting uncontrollable daughter disappeared. The father was devastated, you know. He couldn’t handle it, he killed himself, leaving Amanda and Malia's little sister.'

'And now, what? She blames her 11 year old daughter??' Allison asks, swirling on the chair.

'Amanda isn't the mothering type, alright. Add to that a whole bunch of bitterness and tragedy. It's not that she doesn't care, okay, it's just that she doesn't care enough. Malia's getting a severe complex. She thinks she's ruined her family existing. She wants to go back being a coyote.' Isaac said softly.

'People can be so vindictive.' Stiles murmurs. He pauses and turns to look at Isaac sprawled on his bed. 'You're doing good, you know?'

Isaac lets in a sharp intake of breath. He doesn't respond and instead just looks at Stiles with a look in his eyes that Stiles can't place. There's sadness but something else.

'You should talk to Derek.' Allison's voices makes Stiles turn his back on Isaac, continuing to scroll through pages upon pages.

'I will. I just need more information.'

'So, what, mentally, this girl is 9?' Stiles asks. Isaac huffs in response.

'Yeah. You can understand why Amanda would be fed up of the situation and resort to lash-'

Stiles cuts him off with a war cry.

'NO SYMPATHY FOR ABUSERS.'

*

Isaac's next stop was the house of Lydia Martin.

'Why should I help you?' Lydia snaps. 'You were perfectly okay with killing me.'

'In my defense, we thought you were a were lizard and had murdered a bunch of people.' Isaac says. Lydia's glare doesn't soften.

'Alright. Sorry?' Isaac offers meekly. Lydia sighs.

'That'll have to do for now. Who do you need a psychosis on?'

*

'She's smart.' Lydia says after Isaac has dropped Malia off. 'Obviously, she's nowhere near a 16 year old's intelligence but she is smart. And she's a quick study.'

'Where would you place her, mentally?' Isaac asks.

'Its hard to say,' Lydia sighs. 'The things she's been through, she's beyond her years in some ways.'

'Can she make her own decisions?'

'Depends on what she's deciding on. For 7 years, she based everything on gut and instinct. Her decisions were based on survival.'

Isaac nods slowly. Before he leaves, Lydia places a hand on his wrist. He instinctively wants to yank it back but Lydia's grip is soft and loose.

'I know you feel a kinship with this girl. I get it. Don't do anything rash.'

Isaac nods and she lets him go.

*

'She's not actually a coyote, we can't just decide we want to keep her.' Stiles says.

'She's not a coyote. I can't exactly kidnap her against her will, okay?' Isaac shoots back, attacking the noodles Stiles has placed in front of him.

'Yeah but are you sure you aren't putting ideas into her head?'

'Just those that counteract her mothers.' Isaac says defensively. He looks at Stiles with a noodle hanging out his mouth and Stiles get distracted. Isaac sucks in the noodle and Stiles' mind drifts back to the topic.

'You're like a Papa Wolf. All protective. It's adorable.' Hot, Stiles' mind supplies but yeah, let's just not, okay?

'Her mom is planning on skipping town with the little baby sister.'

'What, she's gonna leave her kid behind?!' Stiles asks, horrified. Isaac shrugged.

'She's not equipped to deal with a were coyote. A feral 9 year old with more than the strength of a 16 year old who has lived in the wild for 7 years.'

'No sympathy.' Stiles murmurs. Isaac is about to reply when the front door opens and closes.

'That smells good!' The Sheriff calls out.

'Tastes even better.' Isaac says as the Sheriff enters the room. The Sheriff pats Isaac ok the head fondly before sitting beside him.

Stiles loves the fact that Isaac doesn't flinch at their touch.

*

Amanda Tate does leave town. The Sheriff tries to track her down but is unsuccessful.

Derek is sitting opposite Malia and Isaac is more than worried. Derek can be brash and he doesn't really consider hurt feelings much.

'Have you ever been in a pack before?' Derek asks Malia softly, not breaking eye contact with her.

Malia tilts her head, trying to remember.

'I mostly just ran away from mountain lions.' Malia said, shrugging. Derek's face shows no emotion.

'Do you want to be in our pack?'

Malia frowns and looks away, wringing her hands together. Isaac wants to rush inside but a hand stops him. Stiles is holding the back of his shirt.

'What do I have to do? I'm not that smart.'' Malia says cautiously after a pause.

Derek smiles at her, warm and welcoming in a way he normally isn't. A warm feeling engulfs Isaac when he realized that Derek is making an effort for him. Smiling, he can still feel Stiles' hand on his lower back and he leans into the touch.

'Follow a few rules. Mostly just want to be in the pack.'

'I'm useless, though. And I kind of ruin things a lot so I don't know.' Malia trails off, looking at her nails. Derek lets out a little laugh and all three stare at him.

'I've ruined a lot of things too. So has everyone else in this pack. Wanna ruin things together?'

*

It's not easy. But it's a good fit. Lydia takes Malia shopping and Allison buys her comfortable shoes. Boyd and Erica spar with her, and Derek give her books. Stiles cuddles her a lot.

Isaac still reads to her.

There's blood and tears and it's a psychiatrists wet dream but they're good. They're great.

It's not easy. But the best things never are. 


End file.
